Confronting loan deadlines, incrementally tougher terms and talk of bankruptcy, the company recently begged for a short-term bridge loan. Shortly afterward it formally announced that it’s putting all of its newspapers, including the Times-Dispatch, on the block.

That’s not much of a surprise, actually. Particularly in the case of the News & Messenger, one has to wonder how such a badly-run outfit has managed to survive for as long as it has.

The local news market isn’t nearly as bad as Media General makes it look. People are interested in what’s going on in their community, they want information about local government, public safety issues in their neighborhoods, and to follow what’s happening with the High School football team. Advertisers want opportunities to target their marketing to local audiences. Done right, a local news outfit should be quite successful, and there are plenty of operations out there proving that potential today.

The News & Messenger isn’t proving that at all. There’s scant local news in it beyond press releases re-edited into depressingly unsubstantial articles, and fluffed with non-local content readers can find elsewhere in a more meaty package. If this newspaper was food, it would be like Hamburger Helper with the hamburger removed as a cost-saving measure.

If Media General sells their Virginia newspaper operations in one block to some remote outfit like Halifax, I hope there will be an opportunity for some local folks to snap it up at fire-sale prices and reinvent this dinosaur. It could be great, if lead by someone with actual vision and some bare modicum of passion.

The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.

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9 Comments

Combining all of the local papers into one gobbled up mess marked the end for this paper. Good ridance. I long for the return of a truly locally run paper, like the Journal Messenger of yesteryear. It will be interesting to see who does buy it, though.

Yep, Badger (13 March), there’s a ton of stories waiting to be told; i.e. the latest
criminal activities going on within the local Sheriff’s Office, firing of Chief Collier
and other high rankers and talk of fraud, forgery, etc. News and Messenger has
done an excellent job of trying to protect the reputation of Glenn Hill (just as the
Wash Post does for Obama). Looks as though the turds are finally rising to the top
and there’s no way to keep this stuff from the tax payers in PWC!! I say it’ll be
good riddance to the News and Messenger!